by Naja and Arnaud Girard The worst picture you could ever imagine of your car would probably be the one where it’s stopped in the middle of the highway, at night, with the handlebars of a bicycle sticking out from beneath your tires. “I didn’t see him. A guy on a scooter just started yelling at me….So I looked over there.” the driver told us. He said he just heard the kid bump the car and out of the darkness a shirtless kid went tumbling and [continue reading…]

by Naja and Arnaud Girard The elephant was back in the room during last Wednesday’s County Commission meeting. Its name is Wisteria Island, but everyone pretended they were innocently debating the issue of restrictive development on offshore islands without ever mentioning the $100 Million + aspirations that Roger Bernstein has for the famous desert island in Key West harbor. What had occurred was a remarkable exercise in special interest maneuvering followed closely by counter measures made by opponents. Let us explain. The County has spent over [continue reading…]

by Arnaud and Naja Girard……… 8:30 on a Saturday morning. It’s already hot and with no AC in the car it’s going to get a whole lot hotter by the time we get into Miami. At her mother’s tiny apartment on Olivia Street, Mary Annuylsse is getting 3-year old Kaeden Murphy ready to go see his dad, Matthew, at Jackson Memorial Hospital. As we reported in previous articles, Matthew Murphy has been stuck in a hospital bed ever since he was tased by a Key West [continue reading…]

by Arnaud and Naja Girard Whether ‘Old Man Chapman’ will finally be swindled out of his house is no longer up for debate. Last Monday a red 8” X 6” legal notice was taped to his door at 221 Petronia Street. It read: “Final Notice of Eviction” and directed the Monroe County Sheriff to remove any person from the premises on Tuesday. “It’s tomorrow. Tuesday is tomorrow,” said Chapman on the phone, “Where am I going to put my things? My clothes? My wife’s clothes? Our [continue reading…]

by Naja and Arnaud Girard In early December when water testing in Key West harbor showed off-the-chart numbers for fecal contaminants, the city rounded up the usual suspects: the boaters. Them again! Certainly they were polluting the harbor by not using mandatory holding tanks and new regulations for offshore liveaboards were swiftly introduced. But the data collected by The Blue Paper tells a very different story. Between November 19 and December 3, the city conducted two weeks of testing in eleven different locations on the west [continue reading…]

by Naja and Arnaud Girard A surprising statistic came out in the news last week. According to one expert 5.8% of Key West’s population is homeless and lives in the mangroves. We’re not even kidding. This is actually the conclusion of a $20,000 study presented by Dr. Robert Marbut to a straight–faced City Commission on August 6th, 2013. At least 1,422 people, according to Marbut, are homeless in Key West and have been for years. After subtracting those in jail and at KOTS [the emergency [continue reading…]

by Naja and Arnaud Girard An investigation into Roosevelt Boulevard construction documents shows a pattern of absenteeism, insufficient crew, lack of supplies, shoddy work and indifference to City inspectors’ remarks. It also raises serious questions about FDOT’s cozy relationship with the contractor. Key West The Newspaper received hundreds of pages of emails and reports from the City of Key West’s utility department. The documents relate to the $ 4.5 Million 24” sewer force main that is being replaced beneath the Boulevard at the City of [continue reading…]